'Royal West Kent Regiment at Neuve Chapelle 1914'

Apart from his other work, which won him nation-wide recognition, Mr Hyde will always be remembered in Kent for his famous picture, reproduced above, of the 1st Battalion The Queens Own, Royal West Kent Regiment, going into action at Neuve Chapelle on October 28th, 1914.

The officer in the picture, who is holding a revolver and leading his men into a hand-to-hand fight with the Germans, is Major H.B.H. White, D.S.O., who lives at Barming, near Maidstone. At the time of the action he was a Lieutenant.

The original of the picture hangs in the canteen at the Maidstone Depot.

Mr. Hyde also painted the picture, which hangs in Maidstone Museum, of wounded soldiers arriving at Maidstone East Station in 1916. It depicts soldiers who had come straight from the trenches after receiving first aid treatment on the field of battle.

The civilians in the picture are Maidstonians who met the trains and directed the distribution of the wounded to the various hospitals in the district. All are easily recognisable.

Among them are Mr. F.T. Travers, Dr. Pye Oliver, Mr. Bernard Haynes, Mr J.T. Pickard, the stationmaster and ambulance men of the time.

The picture captured the public imagination and was purchased by public subscription in 1918. Before that it was exhibited on behalf of Maidstone's adopted War Town. The picture is still extremely popular, and people often call at the museum and state that they can identify themselves as one of the wounded soldiers depicted.

But it must not be supposed that Mr. Hyde was a painter of war subjects only. He had travelled all over the world painting pictures, the majority in oil, although he also painted in other media. In his younger days he had many pictures in the Royal Academy, and was an intimate friend of most of the leading artists of the day.

He was a versatile artist and made a big reputation as a painter of subject pictures. He also executed pictures of landscapes and animals with great success.

Mr. Hyde, like his father was intended for the Army, but he had other ideas and intended to follow art. His art career began when he was sent by "The Graphic" to draw black and white pictures of the Franco-Prussian War in the days before photographic illustrations in papers.

Mr. Hyde wrote many articles on art and travel, especially for "The Studio" and illustrated books in water-colour.

Mr Hyde came of an old family, the ancestral home being Hyde End Manor, Berkshire, where he was brought up. The estate was sold in 1917, but Mr. Hyde had not lived there since a young man. He had lived in Kent since about 1913 and leaves a son Major Rowley-Hyde and a daughter, Mrs Sylvester Bradley.

The funeral takes place this Saturday when there will be a service at St Francis R,C Church, Maidstone, at 10.15a.m. and the internment will be in the Borough Cemetery.